We joke a lot about “blue-check Twitter” on here, but the real joke seems to be Twitter’s own implementation of the program.

As Twitchy recently reported, actor and comedian Michael Ian Black threatened to leave the service after white nationalist Jason Kessler earned a coveted blue check from Twitter. The next day, Twitter issued a statement saying that verification wasn’t meant to be seen as an endorsement.

Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance. We recognize that we have created this confusion and need to resolve it. We have paused all general verifications while we work and will report back soon

The people at Twitter HQ have been hard at work making the situation worse. On Wednesday, Twitter announced that it would pause verifying public accounts and introduced guidelines on removing verification from accounts.

2 / Verification has long been perceived as an endorsement. We gave verified accounts visual prominence on the service which deepened this perception. We should have addressed this earlier but did not prioritize the work as we should have.

4 / We're working on a new authentication and verification program. In the meantime, we are not accepting any public submissions for verification and have introduced new guidelines for the program. https://t.co/j6P0HGXIVq

5 / We are conducting an initial review of verified accounts and will remove verification from accounts whose behavior does not fall within these new guidelines. We will continue to review and take action as we work towards a new program we are proud of.